What Bethesda’s Creation Club means

As we all know by now, at E3 Bethesda announced their new system Creation Club. Which provides new paid content for Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. Or how Bethesda put’s it from their own Creation Club page “Creation Club is a collection of all-new content for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim. It features new items, abilities, and gameplay created by Bethesda Games Studios and outside development partners including the best community creators. Creation Club content is fully curated and compatible with the main game and official add-ons.”

The way I see this is more of a lie. They are claiming these are more like DLC or Expansions, but they are having modders release this content. They are selling people mods. Now I don’t see the biggest issue with it, aside from them lying about it. As long as the mods are up to par with “DLC quality content.” From the launch lineup I would not say it is quality or worth your hard earned cash. As it is mainly weapons and apparel you can just download for free elsewhere. The content the Creation Club can provide is “Weapons, Apparel, World, Characters, Creatures, and Gameplay.”

Weapons, Apparel, Creatures, and Characters speak for themselves. But World is more akin to locations, like new maps, some added foliage, so maybe some texture updates, and even simple decorations. Gameplay is explained as “New types of gameplay like survival mode, etc.” So maybe some actual new additions, Fallout Kart Racing?

Now the content that should be produced, should be something like expansions, think the Dragonborn Expansion, which adds a new location, new storyline, new weapons, outfits, gameplay features, etc. That is what Bethesda should offer, instead of a new gun or sword by themselves for $1.99. As of now we can’t say how it will turn out, but if they are going to do this, and the content creators are going to get paid to produce high quality content, then we as consumers need to hold them to an example of producing good “DLC” (Mods).

I am all for this if it is genuine content that continues the life of games people love like Fallout 4 and Skyrim. But this could set a awful precedent in the industry if mishandled like Bethesda’s previous attempt at paid mods. One of the biggest things was they were not curated mods, this time they are, or least should be, since the modders/content creators will be paid and employees after they apply for the Creation Club, and are accepted. Let’s just hope they can manage this, and their store won’t be filled with paid horse armor that’s purely cosmetic.